A Day In The Life
by vicodin-vixens
Summary: The same day, as seen four different ways by the members of House's team. We own nothing, there is no VV in team.
1. Taub

At 7 am Taub's alarm goes off, waking him up to the irritating tones of his wife's favourite easy listening station. For some reason he wakes to Dancing Queen by ABBA at least three days a week. Today is one of those days.

He showers, gets dressed, and joins his wife in the kitchen. She's cooked him breakfast. He thanks he and gives her a kiss and proceeds to choke down her terrible cooking. He's never had the heart to tell her how awful it is. Besides, it's the thought that counts. And she does make great coffee, so everything balances out. This is what God made cafeterias for. And bear-claws.

He arrives at the hospital at eight-thirty, swings by the cafeteria for that bear-claw, and heads upstairs. Chase and Thirteen are already there, chit-chatting about something and laughing. He joins them, comfortable and easy in their presence. Gradually, they are becoming his friends, as opposed to merely colleagues. He supposes this is somewhat the same as the camaraderie of troops in trenches. He wonders if this makes House their fearless leader or the common enemy. Depends on the day really. For some reason, this thought makes him smile.

Foreman arrives shortly before House, dressed in shades of purple again. Thirteen says his closet is a monument to lavender OCD. He's pompous as usual, and changes the comfortable tone of the room slightly, but that's par for the course. Foreman is what he is. And Taub is used to it. Now that Taub works for House he can get used to anything. Sometimes he wonders when he stopped thinking of himself as Chris and started thinking of himself as Taub. Every once in a while, at home, he fails to answer when his wife calls him.

House arrives with Wilson, who lingers just long enough to pour himself a cup of coffee and remind House that they're having lunch with someone called Michael. House rolls his eyes and says, "Yes dear," and Wilson carries on, presumably to his own office. Kutner swore they were secretly in love, and it's starting to look, more than ever, like he was right. Taub misses Kutner. Daily. Although he tries neither to think about it nor admit it.

Now that the ringmaster has arrived, the circus can begin. And it does. They have a case, and the day flies by in a flurry of tests and results and mistakes and near deaths and one rather bizarre exploding pancreas. Who knew a pancreas could explode? It is exhausting and frustrating and exhilerating. He loves it. He is spoiled for anything else.

Taub crawls home and into bed sometime after 3 am. His wife stirs and mutters something that might be "I love you." He reciprocates and kisses her exposed shoulder, before collapsing onto his side of the bed. Before sleep takes him, he remembers to offer a little prayer to the Gods of Radio. The Bangles, he thinks, would be a nice change.


	2. Foreman

Foreman rolls over and glances at the alarm clock. He always wakes up precisely five minutes before his alarm goes off. He reaches over and shuts it off and stretches. He spends half an hour working out on his home gym (the one that allows you to do pull-ups on your door frame). Then he spends 45 minutes showering and admiring his physique in the bathroom mirror. With a towel wrapped around his waist, he heads back to the bedroom and glances in the closet, looking for the perfect outfit. His shirts are organized from a deep eggplant colour ranging all the way down to pale lilac. There are a few other odd coloured shirts and ties, but they're shoved off to the side. He also has rows of shiny patent leather shoes and sneakers lining the closet floor. He selects a shirt and corresponding tie, and gets dressed, then heads to the kitchen for toast and coffee, which he eats standing up and listening to the news on the radio. Just before he leaves his apartment, he takes another look at the photo of him and Thirteen and reminds himself that he made the right decision when he fired her and that sooner or later, she'll come to her senses and walk back into his arms.

When he arrives at work, he finds Taub, Chase and Thirteen already there. He can sense the change in conversation, the change in mood when he enters, but he knows that's because he's their superior (in every sense of the word) He doesn't notice the glances between Chase and Thirteen because he's so busy being important. He's still pissed that they would all try and pull one over on him, and then (again) he reminds himself that he's not here to make friends. He's here to do a job.

When House and Wilson arrive, Foreman's frown deepens. He doesn't like House being in charge. Whoever said he was a carbon copy of House was dead wrong, he hates that comparison. The only thing they have in common is a pair of Nikes. Foreman knows he can do a better job than House, and resents that he is no longer in charge. Sure, he hasn't been right as often as House, but that's only because he hasn't been given enough time to really prove himself.

Foreman doesn't really have time to think about who's right and who's wrong for the next few hours, as the case (as usual) is demanding all his attention. He loves being in the midst of chaos, he thinks he thrives on it. He focuses solely on the patient, though not to help heal, but to prove his worth. Foreman constantly thinks that if he can figure out the correct diagnosis before House, maybe Cuddy will see him for what he really is - a true leader.

Of course, today is not Foreman's day. Neither was yesterday. But tomorrow will be, he thinks as he pulls back the covers on his bed and slides between the cool sheets (wearing nothing but mauve boxers). He sets his alarm again, useless though he knows it is. He always wakes up five minutes before it goes off.


	3. Thirteen

Remy throws off the covers immediately when her alarm goes off, crawls out of bed and staggers to the kitchen. She pours herself a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, light on the milk, and heads back to bed to eat it. Setting the bowl on her night-table, she grabs the remote and turns on the TV. Just in time. She gets comfortable back under the covers and retrieves her breakfast.

She can't help mumbling along with the dialogue through a mouthful of cereal, "By the power of Grayskull! I have the power!", then laughs at her own nerdiness. Foreman never liked He-Man, said he was more of a G.I. Joe guy himself. That should've been a clue. Remy wonders briefly if Chase likes He-Man, she'll have to ask him, then slurps the last of her sugary milk as the credits roll.

She leaves the bed unmade, dumps her bowl in the kitchen sink, and heads off to have a shower.  
Thirty minutes later finds Thirteen, pressed and dressed, stuck in the gridlock of an early morning commute. She flicks through her ipod playlist looking for something upbeat to suit her good mood.

No.

No.

Joy Division. Way no.

Cyndi Lauper. Perfect.

Again, she laughs at her own dorkiness, cranks the volume, and begins to enjoy the traffic jam.  
Thirteen she-bops her way into the conference room not long after, to find Chase all alone with his lap-top, humming under his breath. She can't quite make out the tune, but she smiles nonetheless. Chase is fun. Light-hearted. Quick to laugh, despite all his recent marital woes. She finds that she appreciates this more and more as time goes on. Taub too, can make her laugh with his quiet sarcasm. Life is better if you can laugh at it. Foreman would do well to figure that out.

She and Chase, idly and happily, talk about nothing until Taub arrives, munching a bear claw. He sits down and the conversation continues; are bear-claws really doughnuts, was Simon too hard on that kid who sang 'Dr. Feelgood' last night on American Idol, would anyone notice that Chase forgot to put the filter in when he made the coffee this morning. Thirteen finds herself grinning and talking with her hands, forgetting to be self-conscious of their occasional tremor.

Foreman arrives, and they settle down as though they are sixth graders and their teacher has entered the room. Thirteen catches Chase's eye and he gives her a subtle smile at Foreman's lilac expense. Foreman begins to discuss some case in some journal, and Thirteen begins to zone out, her focus drifting out the window and into the mid-morning sunshine.

House and Wilson arrive moments later, bickering about dishes and laundry schedules, shaking her out of her reverie. Wilson pours himself a generous cup of coffee grounds before heading off to begin his own day. She wonders if he'll notice. Judging by the slightly stricken look on Chase's face, he's wondering the same thing.

House flourishes a chart at them and the day begins. 15 hours of incredible chaos. With a life saved at the end. Not bad for a Wednesday.

As she drives home in the post-midnight traffic solitude, Remy realizes she forgot to ask Chase if he likes He-Man. Maybe she'll ask him tomorrow. Taub's a Bugs Bunny man, no question. She turns up the volume a little bit louder and she-bops her way back home.


	4. Chase

Chase wakes up to the ring of his alarm clock, feeling happy, until he rolls over and remembers he's alone. And why. And that warm, fuzzy happiness bursts like a bubble. He scrubs a hand over his face and lies in bed for a few more minutes, wondering if he shouldn't have stayed in seminary school. It would've been one way to avoid all the mess he's in right now.

When his stomach rumbles, he forces himself out of bed and stumbles through the pile of discarded clothes on the floor as he heads for the kitchen. He eats a bowl of Lucky Charms standing up against the counter, then puts his dishes in the overflowing sink and sits down at his computer to check his email.

He watches a youtube video of a wiener dog on a skateboard that his young cousin sent to him. It's more entertaining than it has any right to be, and he knows that the accompanying song will provide him with an annoying ear worm for the rest of the day. Chase forwards the video to House, for just that purpose.

Chase showers and gets dressed. He opts for a sweater vest because Cameron once told him that men in their 30s shouldn't dress like overgrown school boys and he considers this a sort of abstract defiance. Now that she's gone, he'll do what he bloody well chooses.

He arrives at the hospital first, probably because he has nothing better to do, and is joined shortly thereafter by Thirteen. Chase has been paying a bit more attention to Thirteen these days. She's so different from Cameron, he thinks. She even smells better. Cameron, who avoided wearing perfume to work, would, on weekends, wear a light floral scent, like lilacs or roses; the smell always reminded Chase of his grandmother, though he wouldn't dare tell Cameron that. Thirteen, he muses, smells almost exotic, warm and inviting. He loves sitting close to her, or when House delegates that they spent extra time with each other, running patient tests and the like.

Chase shelves his thoughts of Thirteen when Taub arrives, and the three of them get along easily until Foreman arrives. Chase wonders if they ever were indeed friends, and if so, when that relationship dynamic changed. Foreman always did like being in charge, and Chase thinks that Foreman would rather House had lost his medical license permanently.

House and Wilson enter together, and Chase thinks that anyone who doesn't see that the two of them are so plainly in love ought to have their eyes checked. He watches them get coffee and his thoughts stray again, this time to House.

Chase idolizes House. He's a genius. Admittedly a maniacal genius at times, but still... Every now and again, Chase thinks of House as a father figure. A father with startingly blue eyes and....best not think about that at all. Chase forces his thoughts back to the case at hand, and soon he's preoccupied with yet another insanely complicated case.

Not once does Chase think that House will fail to figure out the answer, even when the patient's pancreas explodes and he's sitting on death's door. Chase is certain that House will put everything together and solve the ultimate puzzle.

Bone-tired and hungry, Chase arrives home, grabs a beer and flops down in front of the television set, his only company these days. As he channel surfs, he thinks maybe he should get a dog. Perhaps a wiener dog.


End file.
